Making the Old New: Re-Thinking a Classic 100 Year Old Design

Every year, the Extreme Redesign Challenge calls upon tomorrow’s engineers, artists and entrepreneurs to design a better future. It is a test to see who can come up with the most creative, mechanically sound, and realistically achievable design using 3D printing. Seven winners were selected and received scholarships for their efforts as well as features on our website and blog.

Engineering solutions for everyday life, that could possibly impact almost everyone isn’t always what comes to mind when you think of Additive Manufacturing. But Brenner Kar and Jake Klahorst are hoping to disrupt the 100 year old design of the nail clipper with their Extreme Redesign Challenge entry of the nail shield, in the Engineering Secondary Education category.

A simple, frequent chore inspired Brenner and Jake to create the design as an assignment for an engineering class that later led to the entry. The nail shield is a circular add-on device designed to fit on almost any nail clipper, protecting the user from flying clippings and encasing them in a removable vessel that would allow for easy disposal of the clippings when finished. Brenner first came up with the idea after clipping his own nails and wondering why the irritations of the task had never been addressed. “I just realized that it was a pain, for the most part to clip your nails. You have to think about where you are aiming and be careful not to step on any nails that may have missed the trash can, because it can hurt.”

Brenner and Jake had access to 3D Printers in their classrooms at Grand Haven High School in Grand Haven, Michigan, so they were able to print a prototype of their design. Their experience with FDM technology and ABS material greatly impacted their design considerations, and they were pleasantly surprised by the outcome of their first prototype print. After the first print Brenner stated that the final product was very similar to how he envisioned it during the design process, and it even worked when he tried it a set of nail clippers for the first time. Brenner and Jake’s instructor, Mr. Case said that he’s not surprised by the positive outcome of the first print, as Jake and Brenner have both been in his engineering class before. He also said that the “ Using modeling software is great, but having access to 3D printing and having a machine in the classroom helps the students from getting lost in the scale. Many times they will print something and say, ‘Oh, that’s way smaller than I thought it would be, or this is WAY too big to work. Access to 3D printing has opened up areas of opportunity in design thinking and collaboration processes that are beneficial to learning in many ways.”